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Your inner editor is that voice in your head that tells you when you’ve made a typo, or written an awkward sentence, etc. A strong inner editor is not a bad thing, most of the time.

When you’ve written your first draft you can let that strong inner editor loose on your work and hopefully avoid humiliation when you first hand your draft to another reader. If you have a weak inner editor you should get as much outside help as possible.
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My name is Philip Neale and I am a UK author. The main focus of my writing, under the pseudonym ‘Neal James’, is crime fiction. I am an accountant by trade, and use spreadsheets constantly in that line of business. It was therefore quite a small step to transpose that skill into the structuring of my writing.

I usually begin with a fairly basic plan of writing forty chapters of a novel containing 1,500 words each. This, I find, provides me with a fairly easy template with which to plan a story. I never get fixated on the fact that 40 x 1,500 = 60,000 words, and the novel plan rarely ends up in so simplistic a form.

​Let me give you an example. Here is the basic layout of my latest novel, ‘Three Little Maids’, when I commenced the planning stage of the book.

​Balancing being a human and being a writer is quite a difficult task, especially when it isn’t one’s career or greatest source of income. For me, one of the hardest aspects of making time for writing is that I see it as a hobby; often, I feel pressured to take care of every necessary task before picking up my pen. And sometimes, unfortunately, when I get everything done that needs doing(just kidding—is this even possible?) or I put some things off to make time for writing, I find I can’t write. I can’t tell you how frustrating this is when I have as much passion for it as I do. Writer’s block is not something I’m proud to admit I face. Maybe because I think it’s weak? Or because it isn’t talked about as much in my circle of writing friends? Whatever the reason, I’ve accepted it as a real issue that needs to be dealt with.

Over the years that I’ve struggled with this phenomenon, I’ve developed some skills and techniques of working through it. They’re not bullet-proof, and I don’t use the same method every time, but it’s definitely helped me overcome it and get something on the page.

There is no right or wrong way to develop names for your characters. But sometimes it can be difficult to just magically come up with names that just work for your characters and perfectly fit them.

We've put together a short list of some possibilities for developing names. Hopefully these are ideas you’ve not thought of yet, and you can find a new treasure trove of names you’ve not thought of by the end of reading this post. Be sure to share with us ways you find helpful in the comments we may not have thought of sharing. ​